By Chris Brahm and Lori Sherer Just about every leadership team we know is wrestling with one big question: How can data and analytics create real value and defend us from disruption? After all, no CEO wants to be "Netflix’ed" or "Amazon’ed." As companies’ data balloons, signs of analytics-based innovation are appearing across industries, and the application of machine learning, robotics and automation are fast becoming reality. Even the most analog of companies are scrambling to invest in analytics. Their hopes are high, their investments substantial; but the results have been inconsistent at best. In a recent Bain survey of 334 executives, more than two-thirds said their companies were investing heavily in Big Data. Not surprisingly, 40% expected to see a "significantly positive" impact on [...]

By Darren Jackson and Herbert Blum If you’re like most Americans, you probably upgrade your phone to a new one every two and a half years or so. Maybe it’s not quite as simple as flicking on a light switch, but telecommunications companies have fine-tuned this transaction into a fairly mundane ritual. But that’s just your phone, circa 2017. What about a biotech company that needs to transfer the data of connected lab systems while securing sensitive or proprietary information? Or a car factory that needs to upgrade hundreds of sensor-equipped robots while minimizing costly downtime? Or a hospital that needs to protect patient data as it updates monitoring equipment? Just as no one thinks about the electric company until the power goes out, early exuberance for [...]

By Rasmus Wegener Let’s face it: We are awash in data. Your company may produce and store so much digital information that you no longer know what to do with it all. Indeed, more than half of the 325 global companies Bain & Company surveyed admit they don’t have the ability to derive meaningful business insights from their data. And that’s a problem, because a company that makes good use of its data is twice as likely to outperform the competition. Another common problem? The people who would know what to do with that data are often not the ones in charge of it. Most IT departments tend to be less concerned with the “I” in their name—the information itself—than with the technology used to [...]

By Hans Joachim Heider, Michael Schallehn, Christoph Schlegel and Klaus Stricker Look around in traffic at the number of other drivers focused on their phones, and you begin to understand why so many are ready to let autonomous vehicles take control. But although many drivers can’t wait to release the wheel, there’s just one major hitch: Most aren’t willing to pay for it. That’s the finding of recent research from Bain & Company: Buyers weren’t willing to spend much more on advanced autonomous features (like fully automated highway driving) than they spend today on basic ones like adaptive cruise control or rear-view cameras. This disconnect presents a real challenge for automakers and their top suppliers, because today cars with the technology to drive themselves while [...]

By Michael Schallehn, Michael Schertler and Christopher Schorling American companies get plenty of attention for their forays into the Internet of Things, and with good reason: These are household names and megabrands wading into a fast-growing market that’s potentially worth $470 billion a year. But when it comes to actually embracing and implementing the technology, it’s European firms that are off to an early and commanding lead. It’s not just that corporations like Siemens and Schneider have invested serious money—more than €8 billion apiece—in IoT-related acquisitions. Our survey of 500 global executives shows Europeans are more ambitious and optimistic about their plans to deploy IoT solutions in the next few years. In fact, 27% of European executives we spoke to said they’re already implementing IoT [...]

By Laura Beaudin and John Grudnowski Given the ubiquity of smartphones, you’d expect companies to be falling all over themselves to reach their customers on these devices. But they’re not. As a result, many marketers are at risk of missing their mobile moment. People are increasingly attached to their phones. According to a Bain & Company survey, people interact with their devices an average of 200 times per day. They use their phones for communication, information, entertainment and socializing. And, more and more, they’re consulting their phones whenever they’re in the market to buy a product or service. Yet, while people consume 25% of their media on their phones, companies overall spend just 13% of their marketing budgets on mobile advertising. And much of that [...]

By Markus Buergin and Jordi Moncada When it comes to designing products, most companies make a point of listening to their customers. But what if they’re asking the wrong questions? Customers often have wish lists of functions and features they’d like to see in a new product. But just because customers say they want something doesn’t mean they’re willing pay for it. Companies may know what their customers desire, but that doesn’t mean they have a good grasp of what their customers truly value. When companies don’t know what really matters to their customers, the whole enterprise can suffer. Companies can spend precious resources researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing products with innovative features designed to meet the perceived needs of their customers—only to find that [...]

By now, most companies have taken at least the first steps toward doing business in a digital world. They’ve set up flashy websites, built mobile apps, opened e-commerce stores and engaged in social media. While these digital initiatives can deliver value, many executives have been lulled by a false sense of progress. Others have been disappointed that their digital efforts haven’t helped their business more. Sooner or later, every company trying to go digital will run headlong into roadblocks, likely due to legacy IT. Companies have discovered that their legacy IT is not ready for digital. Companies get tripped up when they try to connect their digital initiatives with the organization’s hundreds of legacy IT systems and databases. In many cases, those systems have been [...]

By Henrik Naujoks, Florian Mueller and Nikos Kotalakidis The business of property and casualty insurance—assessing risk, collecting premiums and paying claims—hasn’t changed much since 1861, when a group of underwriters sold the first policies to protect London homeowners against losses from fire. Recently, though, the insurance industry has embarked on a radical transformation, one spurred by a series of digital innovations whose widespread adoption is just a few years away. Seven key technologies have already begun to disrupt the industry—infrastructure and productivity, online sales applications, advanced analytics, machine learning, the Internet of Things, distributed ledger and virtual reality—and their impact will accelerate in the next three to five years, according to research by Bain & Company and Google. These new technologies will be a boon [...]

By Laura Beaudin and Joshua Rossman Social media and customer loyalty programs such as the Net Promoter System have advanced along largely separate paths of development. But what would their union produce? We think it could unlock significant growth in customer advocacy and lifetime value. The rewards reaped by businesses that use the Net Promoter System have been well documented. Net Promoter companies commit to processes that help everyone focus on earning the passionate loyalty of both customers and employees. They regularly get feedback from customers about a recent experience or interaction. Based on a simple question or two—namely, “would you recommend X company to a friend or family member, and why?”—they classify customers as promoters, passives or detractors. They loop the resulting feedback to [...]